A Mobile Culture… Yours

WED., AUG. 13, 1997, 8:55 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Yes, o son, this culture of which you are a part is one with mobility. You have been here for, what, 32 years now, but this is not your original office, and you’ve had at least 3 homes. No longer do you have contact with the place where you were born and grew up. Your sons have little contact with where they grew up… though Matthew and John Patrick are “in the neighborhood” of their childhood and youth.

You remember the camaraderie of the Greer Road neighborhood, which dwindled as more and more of you “originals” moved away. Now you don’t have a “neighborhood”, and you look forward to life that is less human-focused. It is a time to shift to a less stressed and less organized style of living. It may be only temporarily satisfying… or it may be the best pattern for the remainder of this earth life.

A good portion of the family of Lenore’s origin came together last week, from many parts of this country. It is one kind of good to have highways and automobiles, planes and skyways… so that such a reunion is possible. I did recognize the spirit that was in that family gathering, and, as I told you there, I saw how the diversity of spiritual perspectives was responsible for a rather sparse acknowledgement of Me and the larger aspects of spirit.

This represents another sort of mobility… movement toward ways of worship and perceptions of Me… and “reality”… that differ from one another. None of your sons have continued in the way they were introduced to Me and My Church. It shall be interesting to see how their children “choose” how “mobile” each of them will be. You have been fairly permanent as a Presbyterian for over 40 years, even as their perceptions of Me and My Ways do not include this that We have done together for the last 18+ years. It is not a really good “fit”, but… where could you go?

It isn’t yet clear to you how you should “be”, in relation to this Department… your “home” for many years. Most of your former colleagues who have retired have kept little contact, but you feel inclined to continue the relationship, for spiritual purposes. You realize that you have to remain “connected”, in some ways, with this present student group, in order that they may help you “be a reality” for the next group, now entering. The student body of a university has inevitable mobility. Students come… and then move on… and you can easily be left behind. You, with My help, of course, must decide whether that is the desirable “way”… or whether you should work, some, to continue relationships.

Your church shall be a major continuing bulwark against the pains of mobility. Yet you recognize that your present congregation represents both mobility and stability. You and Lenore are not truly “genuine old-timers”, but, relatively, you are among the oldsters. New… and younger… people come in and accept responsibilities that you have had in the past. The “baton” is continually being passed. If you choose not to be a competitor you can be left behind. You shall have to decide how and where you shall be, in this mobility.

Now hear some perspectives on mobility, in the ultimate, that are not quite normative for your culture. There is some obvious acceptance of death, as a reality, in this country. Still there is much effort and money expended on continuing earth life for those without good personal powers of adaptation. In other words, there is organized resistance to the mobility of moving on to spiritual realms, often more familiar and pleasant than this earth scene. Nursing homes house many who could more easily “be mobile” and move on to more pleasant realms.